Former ESU wrestler Washburn gets up to 25 years in prison for violating parole

Friday

Oct 19, 2012 at 3:55 PMOct 19, 2012 at 3:56 PM

Tom Shortell

Moments after a former Bangor Area High School wrestling coach claimed the media had unfairly demonized him for his role in the deaths of a student and and teacher, a Northampton County judge sentenced Brad Washburn to state prison for violating his parole.

Washburn wrestled for East Stroudsburg University in 2000.

Family members of Richard Clark and Gina Riso clutched photos of their late loved ones as Judge Leonard Zito revoked Washburn's supervision and ordered he serve nine to 25 years in state prison. Clark, who smoked marijuana and swapped pills with Washburn, committed suicide in 2010 rather than testify against his old coach. Riso, a biology teacher at the high school, died of a heroin overdose at Washburn's Bethlehem apartment in December 2009.

Washburn pleaded guilty to four counts of corruption of minors in 2010, and Zito sentenced him to Northampton County Prison, where he served nine months. He was still under parole supervision when South Whitehall Township police found him asleep inside his parked vehicle with a bag of heroin on his lap with a syringe and a shoestring, court officials said. He was sentenced to one to two years in Lehigh County Prison but was sent to Northampton County Court for violating his supervision.

As Zito began to discuss Washburn's previous criminal activity, Washburn interrupted, saying the media had wrongly conveyed his story. He did not want to "sugarcoat" the truth, he said, but people were recalling the media's account and not the truth, he said.

"Yes, I made a very bad decision when I was at Bangor, but I never provided drugs to children," the 31-year-old said.

Zito, however, pulled out the transcript from Washburn's guilty plea. In the same courtroom two years earlier, Assistant District Attorney Patricia Broscius said Washburn and Clark exchanged marijuana and prescription medication, and Washburn took the Clark out of class on several occasions so they could get high off school property. Washburn pleaded guilty to those facts, Zito said, and to suggest otherwise would truly be sugarcoating the truth."I was expecting a lot less time. I'm pleased with Judge Zito's decision," Dawn Riso said. Washburn "has ruined so many families' lives.""Around you, there has been death and destruction wherever you have gone," Zito told him.

Zito's sentence was welcome news to the Clark and Riso families. Mary Clark, wearing her son's jeans, varsity wrestling jacket and a wrestling medal, wept during the sentencing as Dawn Riso beamed from her seat.

Mary Clark, however, struggled with her emotions outside the courtroom. She has been living with the fallout of Washburn's actions for years now, she said, and no matter what Zito did, she would still be without her son.

"It will never be enough," she said. "He's where he needs to be."

Washburn has a right to appeal Zito's ruling, and he may appeal because of problems with his public defender. Washburn told the court he applied for a defense attorney earlier, but his assigned lawyer was not at the hearing.

Defense attorney Susan Hutnik was appointed to defend him on the spot, but Zito denied her request for a continuance on the hearing so someone more familiar with the case could handle it.